Historical fiction

March 20, 2013

There have been several letters written on the subject of history the latest being about democracy as written by Alexander Tyler. There was so much that was false about the letter that it just tells how gullible and lazy people are.

First the name is wrong, it is Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee. He was a Scottish advocate, judge, writer, historian who served as Professor of Universal History. The quotes are supposedly from a book entitled 'The Fall of Athenian Republic'. Here is where the facts get muddled, there is no book with that title or similar title attributed to Tytler or for that matter anyone else.

The next problem is that the language of those quotations is very contemporary especially for a professor from the 1700's. The quotations are noted and attributed to a variety of authors but none have been verified as true.

The problem is now that someone has given fictitious attributions to lend credence to a message they are trying to impart. By doing so you are favoring persuasiveness over that of accuracy and sacrificing the truth for the sake of image. This has been a common practice when it comes to other historical figures as well especially Hitler, Stalin, and our Founding Fathers. They have sacrificed the truth for the sake of image.